little feet, big sky

I’m up in Salinas visiting my mother again – this time with Spice in tow. I flipped out yesterday as the spouse and I were trying to get Spice her passport and realized I just needed to get away for a little bit and my own mother was the best solution. I packed her “big” diaper bag, a back pack for me, her cloth diapers & wraps and her swing. *sigh* The swing… I hate the damn thing, but the car just won’t start without it, you know…

Driving up with Spice was a nightmare! First, I got on the road a little too late, around 3pm. Counting the slow through Santa Barbara on the 101 with afternoon traffic, and the smazillion cops pulling people over, I started to panic over driving with her after dark. At it was, we were stopping randomly for diaper changes and nursing, and I wasn’t too picky about where to pull over, but after dark? Even worse, as I got past Paso Robles, I noticed that there weren’t too many town-like areas to stop, just miles and miles of farmland. Add to that, Spice was getting tired of the constant driving and would cry for 20 minutes and quiet for 5-10, then start all over again. I was hysterical and in tears by the time we got to my mother’s. :-(

But today is a new day, and as moms seem to make things better, mine did, too. Good cozy sleep snuggled up together has wiped the slate clean for both me and Spice and she’s napping in her swing quite happily. *sigh*

She’s really so cute when she’s not screaming. :-) She half-smiled at me for the first time a couple of days ago in the bath. (She really likes her baths.) And then yesterday before we hit the road, she smiled at the spouse, while grabbing at his hair. This morning won me over, though. After eating, she sat and smiled these big open-mouthed smiles at me, with little gurgle sighs in between. Ahhh. So freakin’ cute.

It’s hard to believe she’s just 6 weeks old. A month and a half. She’s so alert and engaged, and since I’m obviously biased I have to say that other people notice it too. :-) As much as I wanted to take an international trip to see my grandmother, I’m starting to feel bad about taking her so far from the spouse for so long, especially while she’s breaking into new ground every day. It just wouldn’t be fair, even if he is super-tied up with some of our business stuff right now.

Well, off I go for now. Told mom I’d tidy up her resume for her this morning.